Direct booking checklist

This is the operational acceptance checklist for the final working day before publication. Hotel Nordlicht verifies sources, desktop and mobile guest journeys, price and availability, then a complete booking into the PMS.

6 min read1,229 wordsFor hotel managers, front desk and direct sales immediately before launch

What you will be able to do

Run approval in a fixed order instead of relying on instinct.
Find blockers before real guests or prices are affected.
Prove with a test booking that direct sales and operations work together.

What you need before starting

A named approval owner from management or direct sales
Active room categories, direct rate plan, policies, extras and payment method
A safe test window and clearly marked test guest data

Set the approval team and stop rules

Before the first click, define who decides and when publication stops.

Assign owners for guest content, pricing and the PMS result. Small hotels may combine roles, but a second person should still review the price calculation. Use one shared test period.

Define hard stops for wrong capacity, missing direct rates, unexplained totals, incomplete policies, inactive payment methods, broken mobile layout or an incorrect PMS booking.

Launch roles for a small hotel team

Role	Checks	May stop for
Guest perspective	Copy, images, mobile use, policies	Unclear choice or visual defect
Price & sales	Rate, nights, extras, tax, total	Any unexplained deviation
PMS acceptance	Reservation, guest, room product, source	Missing or incorrect reservation

Approve every sold item at its source

The public page is the result of central master data, not its second maintenance location.

Open Rooms → Rooms & categories and review every category sold direct: name, occupancy, size, descriptions, amenities and image order. Internal codes do not help guests.

Then verify public hotel identity in Settings, the active direct rate plan in Pricing and the responsible areas for extras, policies and payment methods. Correct the source, then reload preview.

Source approval

Only active, truly sellable categories are visible.
Capacity, photos and claims match the room.
Hotel contact and brand are current.
Rate, extra, policy and payment method each have one responsible source.

Review preview on desktop and mobile

The mobile journey is the required case, not a scaled-down extra.

Open the internal Booking Engine preview with a clean browser state. Search the agreed dates for two adults and inspect search, room cards, rate, policies, extras, guest data and completion.

Repeat the same journey on mobile. Buttons must be reachable, copy and prices must not clip, translated text must wrap and dialogs must fit above the keyboard.

Recalculate price and availability with three required cases

A plausible price is not a verified price.

Write the expected calculation before each search. Test a standard stay, one changed dimension and a stay with an extra. Compare search, rate selection, basket and final completion.

Verify one available and one unavailable case. Housekeeping status alone is not an inventory block; a real room block or out-of-service state is.

Three pricing cases, one clear approval

Case	Write down first	Passes when
A, Standard	2 adults, 2 nights, rate, expected total	Every step shows the same logic
B, Variation	Single occupancy or weekend	The price change is fully explainable
C, Extra	Room price plus selected extra	Extra and total remain through completion

Complete one full mobile test booking

Acceptance does not end on the thank-you page, but at the correct stay in STRYK.

Use clearly marked demo guest data, not real guest data. Review name, email, dates, occupancy, policies and total before submitting once. Double click or reload must not create a duplicate.

Then open STRYK Bookings. The reservation must appear once with correct source, dates, product, rate, guests, price, extra and status. Verify guest profile and confirmation.

PMS acceptance in six steps

01
Find reservation
Find exactly one result using test name or reference.
No duplicate
02
Compare stay
Compare dates, nights and guests with the test case.
Dates match
03
Check product
Category, rate and extra match the choice.
No remapping
04
Check price
Total equals the pre-calculated approval value.
Difference €0
05
Link guest
Guest profile shows the correct stay and contact.
Profile complete
06
Read confirmation
Reference, service, price and next step are clear.
Guest questions answered

Publish, roll back and protect day one

A controlled launch needs a rollback path and fixed monitoring.

Open STRYK readiness checks and fix each blocker at its source. Publish only after test cases pass, required information is complete and owners are reachable.

Review direct bookings hourly for the first four hours, then daily for seven days. For a severe issue, unpublish without deleting master data or publication history, fix the source and repeat the affected case.

Monitoring plan after launch

Time	Check	Response
Hours 1-4	New booking, price, inventory, confirmation	Stop severe issues immediately
First evening	Full journey and front-desk arrival	Collect questions and deviations
Days 2-7	Daily bookings, drop-offs, questions	Release only tested changes

Complete the approval record

Close acceptance with one record containing version, dates, devices and languages, pricing cases, test reference, PMS result, open non-blocking items, approver and next review.

Reuse the record after major changes to rates, payments, policies, capacity or journey. A photo change needs a visual review; a new rate or payment method needs full price and completion tests.

Go live only with seven green proofs

Publish only when a guest can book the expected price on mobile and the team can take over the complete stay in STRYK without rework.

01Owners, test period and hard stops are recorded.
02All sold categories and hotel data are approved at their source.
03Desktop and mobile work in all active languages without visual defects.
04Three price cases retain the same explainable logic through completion.
05Available and unavailable cases match calendar and blocks.
06One mobile test booking appears exactly once and complete in the PMS.
07Monitoring, rollback path and next review are assigned.